Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the the use of torture in that country.

The Foreign Secretary met Foreign Minister Okitundu in October. I met with him during the United Nations General Assembly in September and with a range of government contacts when I visited the DRC in April. We made clear that we have zero tolerance for any human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law. The UK played a key role at the June 2018 Human Rights Council, which mandated the UN Joint Human Rights Office to document and profile human rights violations in DRC.